Van der Ende stamboom » Reina Baljeu (1922-1999)

Personal data Reina Baljeu 

• She was born on February 12, 1922 in Naaldwijk, Nederland.
• She died on June 6, 1999 in Naaldwijk, Nederland, she was 77 years old.
• A child of Pieter Baljeu and Reina van Seters

Household of Reina Baljeu

Notes about Reina Baljeu

She was living before 1991 in Rozenburg,Zuid Holland.nl. She was living from 1991 in Honselersdijk.

She was ill with cancer between 1996 and 1999 in Honselersdijk.
What follows here is a translation of a newspaper article that Reina wrote in May 1995.

 

My oldest sister (Maatje) was living right across from us, on the other side of the street. She had seven small children. In the last months of the war, they would go along the neighbourhood asking for food (potatoes, and so on).Her husband ( Jan Voordenhout) was always hungry. He worked so hard for his family. One day she came home with 145 potatoes. That called for a celebration! But they were not eaten in one day, no, but from them were cooked all kinds of dishes with vegetables and soups.

Once she sat in our home crying because she didn't know what to put on the table for food that evening. She went away (we couldn't help her either) and a while later she returned.

In the meantime someone had brought a basket with sprouts in the back porch, so that there was again something to eat. She never found out who brought the food. We simply saw it as one of God's miracles, since that was also very well possible.

The Westland area was really plundered by people from the surrounding cities during the war years.

There were people who had lots of linen and so on which they traded for food. Those things also came  to be.

In November of 1944 there was Nazi blitz to round up resistance sympathizers, and my brother-in-law was taken away. I then had a real burden to help my sister who had three small children. At that time, the whole coast was covered with bunkers and barbed wire.

In February, my sister went with someone else to Amersfoort to get her husband from prison. Many people tried to do that. She used tires made of truck tires on her bike. She asked me if I could look after her children, she would be gone about 5 days, which I did.

Before she left she asked me, "if I don't return, would you take care of my kids?"I replied, "Yes,yes,don't worry about that."  Her oldest son went with her. He was only 14 years old and was able to cross the front lines with her. I was 23 and still alone. On sunday afternoon a bomb fell right behind her house, in the cemetery. What a scare, how awful! Every window in the nearby houses was shattered, except none of ours. The neighbour came to have a look, found us shaken, but nothing broken. "A miracle,"we said.

My sister returned healthy and well, but she had to leave her husband in a neighbouring village.

Later, he was secretly brought back in the dark at night through the tank traps.

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Timeline Reina Baljeu

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